Can Art Save Us?
Nowhere, designed by Philip Sanderson, made by West Dean tapestry studio
Three new craft commissions go on show at Museums Sheffield this month as part of their new exhibition Can Art Save Us? (until 31 January)
The exhibition takes as its starting point Ruskin’s ideas about art as a force for social change and asks whether these beliefs hold any relevance in the 21st century. There’ll be work by Ruskin and his contemporaries on show, as well as a selection of items from his collection (housed at the Museum’s Sheffield Millennium Gallery). And there’ll also be a series of new commissions inspired by the Victorian scholar’s philosophy, especially his interest in sustainability and his social conscience. So there’s an installation by textile artist Georgina Bell made up of two rows of felt embroidered houses, each individually depicted to show the importance of individual experience and all made out of fleeces sourced from the farm Ruskin founded to preserve traditional agricultural skills. Then there’s Nowhere, a tapestry depicting Ruskin’s symbol of the ideal community, a tree. It was designed by Philip Sanderson and made by West Dean tapestry studio. And finally there’s Stefan Tooke’s platter made out of ethically sourced silver – something that is hard to come by as the mining industry has a notoriously poor environmental track record – which was commissioned as Sheffield’s inaugural Sustainability Commission.
www.museums-sheffield.org.uk
